Another one bites the dust! Yep, that's another Women's Murder Club novel all done, and I think the longevity of this series is catching up with me, mainly because of my incessant need to marathon them all. I said before I wasn't getting bored, and I guess you could still say that the series doesn't exactly bore me, but I'm thinking of other stories lying in wait, calling my name, maybe something in the fantasy genre. I definitely need to take a break from the crime genre soon. But, alas, there are only three more books to go in this series until I'm all caught up, so I'm highly motivated.
I try not to read other reviews of a James Patterson novel anymore, because they seem to divide opinion. For me, I love the series, it's a thrilling, intriguing and satisfying crime series that has sold book upon book. But others aren't so keen on it, and the whole point of my point is to say, take every review with a pinch of salt. I know some people who read that peruse reviews and latch onto the negative ones, and that upsets me. Reading and enjoying a book is a subjective experience, we all love something different, no matter how similar we are, or how different. Even this review, I enjoy this book a lot, but you might not, but you might, and now my head hurts because I've wrote a huge paragraph about something you probably already know and I'm going to stop.
Sorry.

Moving on, 10th Anniversary by James Patterson almost doesn't quite make the 5/5 it gets from me, so I'll start with what I don't like. Something I've mentioned before is the fact some of the main characters fade in and out depending on which book you read, especially within the Women's Murder Club, and it removes the seriousness and charm that that club brings to the table, which is disappointing. Books 1 - 4/5 I think have a great go with the club, and I hope more focus goes into it in the future.

Synopsis-wise, the book focuses on three main plot lines. Lindsay is bumped to a case involving a fifteen-year-old girl who is found in the middle of the road after just giving birth. Even worse, the baby is nowhere to be found, and the girl claims the poor thing was kidnapped. Along with that, Lindsay is dragged into her close friend Yuki's trial, a trial that could determine Yuki's job, and it might not work in her favour. Last, but not least, is Cindy's story (yes, Claire, our other 1/4 of the club is in the novel, but she isn't as prominent as her buddies), which is that women are turning up in alleys or outside their houses with no memories of the past few hours, only that, once inspected, they learn they've been drugged and raped, but is Cindy placing herself in danger again? Is chasing this story too far?

I enjoy 10th Anniversary, the book is engaging and completely held my interest from start to finish, but I do feel the authors are spreading the stories thinly. Three mediocre stories over what should have been just one huge arc. It's becoming more and more apparent as the series goes on, and I think that's what a lot of people notice.
The characters I've come to love are back and I've already said a lot about them. They're tough, smart women in mainly what's deemed a 'man's job', and they're doing their best to show the world they're just as good. (Even though it's the 21st Century now, as Shannen Doherty said with her character Prue in Charmed: 'It's the woman's job to save the day.')

All in all, it's another fine entry to the series, and I will absolutely continue on with them.